Brian Stewart
College of Lit, Science & Arts
The 2024 U-M Training Program in Archaeology (Dept. of Anthropology) brought 6 undergraduate field school trainees and one Anthropology GSI to Highland Lesotho, southern Africa. For five weeks, the students were taught advanced archaeological methods through hand-on fieldwork at Ha Soloja, a Middle Stone Age rock-shelter site situated at 2,300 m (7,500 ft) above sea level with an archaeological sequence stretching back over 100,000 years. Archaeological investigations here are one component of a broader research project exploring the development of the profound behavioral flexibility that is the hallmark of our species. The teaching staff included myself, two project co-PIs (Drs. Genevieve Dewar and Michael Schillaci of the University ofToronto Scarborough) and a series of local collaborators and employees.
The U-M students received methodological training in several valuable archaeological skills. First, they learned how to conduct rigorous, single-context stratigraphic excavation involving the full excavation process (establishing an excavation grid; distinguishing, delineating and removing individual contexts and features; carefully exposing and three-dimensionally recording the locations of artifacts; operating a Total
Station; describing and interpreting individual contexts; selecting and removing in situ charcoal, macrobotanical, microfaunal and mineralogical samples; creating accurate archaeological plan and section drawings; sieving sediments; and performing bucket flotation). Second, through this process students were familiarized with a range of archaeological materials (flaked and groundstone artifacts, macro and microfaunal remains, ostrich eggshell fragments and beads and macrobotanical remains). Third, students received targeted instruction on zooarchaeological and lithic artifacts through lectures and hands-on practical sessions. The fourth learning outcome, gaining experience of how to conduct archaeological landscape survey, was unfortunately not possible due to time constraints and research priorities within the rock-shelter itself. The broader objectives of this field school were to educate, engage and empower students through archaeological fieldwork.
Training proceeded as follows. For nearly a week while the site was being opened (backfill removed, sections cleaned, site grid reestablished), the students were tasked with excavating simulated ‘dummy’ trenches in disturbed secondary deposits outside the rock shelter. There, they received intensive training by co-PI Dewar in our entire archaeological workflow (establishing datums; laying out baselines and a site grid, staking out two 1×1 m excavation units; excavating these units by 0.5×0.5 m quadrants and delineating stratigraphy; exposing cultural artifacts and features within quadrant-based stratigraphic units; and recording the three-dimensional position with a Total Station; describing and interpreting archaeological sediments and their formation; maintaining all relevant sedimentary and archaeological information on digital context sheets; in situ sampling; labelling sediment packages removed for sieving and piece-plotting; classifying and sorting finds; etc.). Once they seemed comfortable operationalizing all of this, we moved them into the two actual archaeological trenches currently open within the rock-shelter. There, they worked closely alongside the project PIs and GSI and received further guidance and training as they went along. In addition, they attended three field trips: a day-long rock art tour of the directly adjacent Sehlabathebe National Park (a UNESCO World Heritage Center in whose buffer zone Ha Soloja is situated); a half-day visit to the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site outside Johannesburg; and a half-day guided tour of the Origins Centre Museum in Johannesburg itself.
Myself and my fellow teaching staff were deeply impressed by the performances of each individual field school attendee; they undertook the work with enthusiasm, seriousness and professionalism. They also read all material assigned on the syllabus, attended a series of nightly lectures on relevant topics, and maintained a site notebook the contents of which formed a portion of the grade (all students received As).